The King's Wife

1896 · Painting · 97 × 130 cm

May one see it?

Unknown

Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Moscow, Russia

The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.

Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

About the painting

The King's Wife or The Queen is an early 1896 oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. It is also known as Woman with Mango Fruits, Woman under a Mango Tree or Te arii vahine (the Tahitian title painted at bottom right).

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It was produced on Tahiti, with Gauguin writing to his friend Daniel Monfreud in April 1896 “I have just finished a painting …, which I consider much more successful than the previous one: a naked queen lies on a green carpet, a servant picks fruits, two old men near a larger tree are discussing the tree of knowledge; in the depths of the sea coast. <...> It seems to me that in terms of colour I have never created a single thing with such a strong solemn sonority. The trees are in bloom, the dog is guarding, on the right, two doves are cooing. But what is the point of sending this painting when there are already so many others that are not for sale and cause a howl? This will cause an even louder howl.”

Monfreud kept the painting until it was bought in August 1903 for 1,100 francs by Gustave Fayet. The news of Gauguin's death in April 1903 had not yet reached Monfreud, so the latter sent him a letter informing him that the painting had sold, but the letter was returned unopened and marked "deceased". Fayet, Gauguin and Monfreud all considered the painting one of the artist's best, heavily influenced by Édouard Manet's Olympia, of which Gauguin made a copy (now in a private collection) and of which he took a reproduction to Tahiti.

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Particulars

Accession number: Ж-3265

In the catalog

Paintings Oil French painting Impressionism 19th century France

Sources

Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Image: Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts — © Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

Meanwhile, in the life of Paul Gauguin

The whole life

1891–1901 · Workplace
Tahiti
November 1894
Exhibition at Durand-Ruel
The exhibition at the Durand-Ruel gallery had moderate success: 11 of the 40 paintings shown were sold at fairly high prices; soon afterwards, however, Gauguin lost Durand-Ruel's patronage.
February – April 1895
Failed Auction and the Oviri Scandal
In February 1895 Gauguin tried to repeat the Hôtel Drouot auction, but without success; in April he submitted the large ceramic sculpture Oviri to the salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, whose reception caused a scandal, and wrote an indignant letter on the state of modern ceramics in Le Soir.
28 June 1895
Final Departure for Oceania
On 28 June 1895 Gauguin sailed once more for Tahiti — Eugène Carrière arranged cheap passage for him — arriving in September; he never saw Europe again. He spent the next six years mostly near Papeete, building a spacious house at Punaauia.
April 1897
News of the Death of His Daughter Aline
In April 1897 Gauguin received news that his beloved daughter Aline had died of pneumonia; the same month he learned that he had to vacate his house, and, taking out a bank loan for a new one, by the end of the year he was on the brink of ruin and despair.
c. 1898
Suicide Attempt
After finishing Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Gauguin attempted suicide by taking arsenic, but the dose proved too large, and a violent fit of vomiting saved his life.